An independent report says Japan's response to the nuclear crisis that followed the March 11th earthquake and tsunami was woefully unprepared. The report issued Monday lists problems ranging from an erroneous assumption that an emergency cooling system was working, to a delay in disclosing dangerous radiation leaks.

The interim report was compiled by an independent panel after interviewing over 400 people, including utility workers and government officials.

The report criticized the Tokyo Electric Power and government regulators for failing to think beyond the risks for which the Fukushima nuclear plant was designed.

The report criticized the use of the term “soteigai,” meaning “outside our imagination,”

“This accident has taught us an important lesson on how we must be ready for soteigai,” it said.

The report, set to be finished by mid-2012, found workers at Tokyo Electric Power Co., the utility that ran Fukushima Dai-ichi, were untrained to handle emergencies like the power shutdown that struck when the tsunami destroyed backup generators setting off the world's worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.

There was no clear manual to follow, and the workers failed to communicate, not only with the government but also among themselves, it said.

Finding alternative ways to bring sorely needed water to the reactors was delayed for hours because of the mishandling of an emergency cooling system, the report said. Workers assumed the system was working, despite several warning signs it had failed and was sending the nuclear core into meltdown.

The report acknowledged that even if the system had kicked in properly, the tsunami damage may have been so great that meltdowns would have happened anyway.

But a better response might have reduced the core damage, radiation leaks and the hydrogen explosions that followed at two reactors and sent plumes of radiation into the air, according to the report.